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Severe World Cup Racing in Les Gets

Jul 6, 2021 | News | 0 comments

The last racing stop before Olympic Games in Tokyo turned out to be a demanding affair for both riders and equipment. SCOTT-SRAM put up a strong fight, handling the difficulties in stride.
Les Gets, France. With the Tokyo Olympics in sight, SCOTT-SRAM Racing Team returned full force just in time, with Kate Courtney completing the team again after her injury. Facing difficult conditions on a muddy and challenging XC World Cup track in Les Gets, the weekend delivered an exciting weekend of world cup racing.

With Nino Schurter on the podium in 5th, Lars Forster with a top ten in 9th, and a strong comeback of Andri Frischknecht in 21st, the SCOTT-SRAM showed a good performance. For Kate Courtney, with all the excitement and motivation being back at World Cup racing after her injury, the conditions made for a tough return to racing. While the race didn’t go well for her, she fought until the finish line to show her strong resilience.

Imagery: Michal Cerveny, Remi Fabrigue
The 2019 World Cup Les Gets track faced criticism for being too “old school” and not technical enough, but the organizer took this advice as motivation to build a new course for 2021. It is now one of the most demanding race tracks on the circuit, both from a technical and physical standpoint. We really like this track and look forward to the World Championships here in 2022. However, for any race courses with technically difficult features, bad weather can push the track and riders to their limits. The severe conditions in Les Gets did exactly that.
It’s no secret Nino Schurter prefers hot and dry conditions over wet and cold ones. But Nino would not be the record World Champion if he couldn’t put his head into the game when needed. In the slip and slide festival in Les Gets, he was not able to unfold his abilities 100% to battle for victory, but with a steady race, he managed to save himself a spot on the podium. World Cup leader Matthias Flückiger showed he is the man to beat at the moment after extended his lead with an impressive double victory in both XCC and XCO.
“First of all, I’m happy my bike and I made it safely to the finish line. I felt strong throughout the race but wasn’t riding aggressive enough to be all the way up there. There was another important race in the back of my head, which I didn’t want to risk. All on track for Olympics, hopefully not in conditions like these.”

Nino Schurter
Olympic Champion- 8x World Champion- European Champion
SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing

One of the only athletes who had a smile on their face at the start (and finish!) line was Lars Forster. As 3x National Cyclo-Cross Champion, he not only likes these muddy conditions but is also very good at them. It took a while to get the train rolling as he first had to overcome his starting position in the 4th row, but once he got going he showed his skills moving up quickly. In the last two laps, he had the 2nd best lap time which moved him up to respectable 9th place. After winning the Swiss Cup last week, this is a good indicator he is on the move back up.
Also on the move is Andri Frischknecht. After a second and third place in the recent Swiss Cup, he showed another strong performance in Les Gets. He was in the mass crash around Nove Mesto winner Tom Pidcock right at the beginning and had to start his race around 50th position. With skills and a positive attitude, he turned his race into a good one finishing in 21st position.

The men’s podium left to right: Alan Hatherley RSA 4th- Ondrej Cink CZE 2nd- Mathias Flückiger SUI 1st- Jordan Sarrou FRA 3rd- Nino Schurter SUI 5th

Women’s Race

Our World Cup Champion Kate Courtney traveled to Les Gets with a lot of motivation and a victory in her pocket at the Swiss Cup just a week prior. Despite not having many hours on her MTB since her injury in Nove Mesto, she had the course dialed in looking confident.

The drastic weather changes certainly were not in her favor. The sometimes “out of control sections” on the slippery descent were difficult to handle for someone who just healed from a crash on a slippery surface. The start actually went very well but soon it was obvious this is not Kate’s terrain. She slipped back to 18th place which is far away from her capability on regular conditions. The good news is she fought all the way to the finish line. Even though she had a crash which resulted in some stitches on the knee. Her resilience really earned her some credit. When the sun is back Kate will be shining again.

The team is now on the move to the Olympic training camp in Massa Vecchia, Tuscany where they will find some heat to get acclimated to the climate in Tokyo and triple-A trails to dial in riders and bikes for the big Olympic race coming up July 26th (Nino) & 27th (Kate).

Please cross your fingers and cheer for us!